Some Companion Plants To Use With Rhododendrons
Gertrude Wister, Swarthmore, Penna.
At the Annual Meeting of the A.R.S. in Philadelphia last May, an outstanding illustrated talk was given by Gertrude Wister. The following list of plants is published here for the benefit of those who wish to complement their rhododendron plantings with other genera.
- Leucothoe - purple winter color. Summer foliage contrast
- Pieris japonica (Andromeda) - fine flowers. Good foliage contrast
- Blueberries - all year interest in flowers, foliage, twigs
- Enkianthus - cream to rosy flowers, fall color, fine foliage
- Mountain laurel - fine flowers, good foliage texture
- Winter aconite (Eranthis) - yellow flowers very early
- Snowdrops - white flowers very early
- Crocus tomasinianus - spreads fast, beats mice. Pale lavender
- Chionodoxa sp. - early small bulb, violet blue to white. Seeds
- Scilla siberica - early small bulb, bright blue. Seeds freely
- Anemone blanda - Daisy-like flowers pale violet, pink, white. Seeds.
- Anemone apennina similar, later. Soak these and winter aconite 2-3 days in water before planting.
- Bloodroot - early white, seeds freely Daffodils - especially small-cupped kinds. Choose for long season
- Pulmonaria angustifolia - bright blue flowers. Foliage low, good all season. Also kinds with spotted foliage, pink or blue. Seeds. April, May.
- Epimedium - Good foliage mass all season. Flowers red, white, or yellow
- Sedum ternatum - useful woodland species for edges, odd corners
- Iris cristata - low, in white or violet blue. Early May
- Ferns - New York fern, bulblet bladder fern, lacy, rather low, spreading. Cinnamon and interrupted ferns 3 ft.in crowns. Christmas and marginal shield fern evergreen to late winter.
- Dicentra eximia - pink flowers, some all summer, lacy foliage.
- Wild geranium - white form especially effective
- Phlox stolonifera - fine ground cover, foliage good all summer. Forms in violet blue, rose, pink.
- Aruncus sylvester (Goat's beard) - Lacy white plumes 5', early June
- Japanese silver fern (Goring Spleenwort) fronds silver and bronze
- Scilla companulata (wood hyacinth)-bulbs To 18", loose bells in violet blue, white, and pink. May
- Tiarella (foamflower) - fluffy white flowers. May. Attractive foliage
- Solomonseal - creamy bells hanging from stem. Kinds from 2-5'
- Solomonsplume - Stem topped by white plume (False solomonseal)
- Phlox divaricata - light violet blue. Seeds.
- Sweet woodruff ( Asperula odorata ) - small creeper, tiny white flowers
- Mertensia virginica - light blue flowers, foliage disappears in summer
- Saxifraga stolonifera ("Strawberry begonia") Marbled foliage all summer
- Violets - many good kinds. Avoid weediest
- Cimicifuga - natives bloom July, 5-8', white spires, lacy foliage
- Astilbe sinensis - low creeper, lacy foliage lavender pink flowers August
- Hostas - for foliage interest. Some foliage very large, some variegated white or yellow. White H. plantaginea and minor alba good for August bloom.
- Wood asters - must be kept in bounds, but give starry white or pale violet flowers in late summer and fall.
- Liriope (lily turf) - 'Lilac Beauty' especially good, also whites. Grassy foliage. Bloom in September
- Colchicum - September flowers in lilac or white like big crocuses. Large foliage unsightly as it ripens in June
- Cimicifuga simplex - white flowers to three feet in October, in plumes
- European ginger ( Asarum europaeum ) - low glossy foliage good very late
- Asarum canadense also makes good masses, seeds.